Philip l



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PHILIP L. SYL VE STER, OF AUBURN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO WOODRUFF BROTHERS, OF SAME PLACE.

MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS FROM PLASTIC MATERIAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 229,491, dated June 29, 1880.

Application filed May 8, 1880. (Specimens) To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIP L. SYLVESIER, of Auburn, in the county of Cayuga, and in the State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Mannfacture of Buttons from Plastic Material, (Case 0 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

In the manufacture of buttons from plastic material it has heretofore been the practice to sprinkle Within the mold or upon the surface of the plastic material, just before being applied, such powdered substances as were necessary to give to the surface of the finished button a mottled or ornamental appearance; but buttons thus produced have presented a dead, lusteriess appearance, and in most instances the particles used for ornamentation have roughened the surface of the button, and by use have become detached. To remedy this defect is the design of my invention, which consists, as an improvement in the manufacture of buttons from plastic material, in an ornamental coating for the exterior of a button, composed of tinsel, foil, brocade, goldsand, or other like finely-subdivided material combined with shellac, substantially as and for the purpose hereinafter specified. v

In the preparation of my ornamental coating I take powdered shellac and thoroughly mix therewith any desired proportion of tinsel, foil, brocade, gold-sand, or other like finelysubdivided material, after which the same is subjected to heat and worked into a homogenious mass until quite stiff. After the mass thus produced has become cool it is reduced to powder, and such powder used by being sprinkled within the molds or dies or upon the surface of the plastic material employed therein in the usual manner; and after the button has been produced it is found that the ornamental material appears suspended within a transparent coating having considerable apparent depth instead of having the appearance of being glued upon the surface and presentin g a dull, dead luster. The effect named is produced by the shellac, which becomes melted by heat and surrounds the particles of ornamental material with a transparent body, which possesses greater hardness and durability than the material of which the button is formed.

Having thus fully set forth the nature and merits of my invention, what I claim as new 1s As an improvement in the manufacture of buttons from plastic material, an ornamental coating for the exterior of a button, composed of tinsel, foil. brocade, gold-sand, or other like finely-subdivided material combined with shellac, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 5th day of May, 1880.

P. L. SYLVES'IER.

Witnesses P. O. WOODRUFF, H. WOODRUFF. 

